A few times now, I've called the customer service line for certain supermarkets to find out how the 'Use By' date is calculated. Majority of them will tell you their use by date is set for 18-24 months after the actual roast date. From there you can work out when your beans were roasted, and get a fresher bag. I've actually been able to buy some pretty fresh/decent quality beans from supermarkets from that.
Hey Kev , which of the current coffee works coffees have you had success with on the bambino ? A Make along with/taste along with video would be good :) Thanks
Hi Adam, I will be recording such video's soon, for entry level machines including the bambino and bambino plus I would recommend beans such as the chocolate brownie blend, (the most forgiving coffees to use are the blends), Classic Italian, fruit and nut, and fruit cake blend. That isn't to say single origins don't work with these machines its just that blends are generally more forgiving on beginner barista skills and entry level setups Cheers Kev
@@Coffee_Kev 100%. I seem to have finally cracked it. (At least for now) Bambino Plus Your chocolate brownie blend SGP, default internal burr, external set to 4 17 seconds gives me 18g Bottomless portafilter, IMS basket. Gentle tap to level, Xunada distributor. No WDT or further tamping needed. 36g in 27 seconds, lovely crema. Espresso tastes really good and makes a great Americano too.
@@tim_biller I will be trying this configuration later. I have those same devices, although just the bambino. So far I have discovered over 100 different ways how not to make an espresso. It's killing me. Just can't seem to get it right. Latest Cworks bean delivery has arrived, so here goes.
Hi Lori, I'd recommend starting out with a freshly roasted espresso blend, just find one you love and if you stick with that one bean for a bit while you're finding your feet with it, that can make things a bit easier initially. Single origins can be amazing but they can be a bit more tricky to extract well, so blends are a more forgiving bean to start out with. Ta, Kev.
Another thing that can cause very sour espresso, for those who descale their machine regularly, is not fully flushing the machine after descaling! They take a lot of flushing to get rid of all the descaling solution and it doesn't take much left in there to make the espresso extremely sour! Bean there, done that! (pun intended!). 😁
@@Coffee_Kev thanks mate! I’m going to buy the sage express impress and your videos helping me a lot! It’s a pity I can’t order your coffee to Germany 😓 I think i will miss good coffee beans 😩
@@spl1t90 try timemore’s black mirror scales, they’ve released an espresso specific set for £80/90 I think, I have the non espresso ones and they’re great
nice vid have the duo temp pro.. think its not getting the water hot enough.. anyway, question is, I cant afford a proper espresso grinder atm and buying the speciality ground espresso from one supplier chokes the machine.. so can I ever make half decent espresso using pre ground and a double walled (I get very sour) and just extend the ratio? Or do I need to just get myself a grinder and that will make my life easier?
I find that these little tweaks make little difference and if you don't like the taste, it's usually because you don't like the coffee. Occasionally it's your machine not being good enough to replicate the taste in that coffee shop with a £10k machine. If your coffee is ground too fine or too coarse, it will affect the flavour dramatically, but I find that I can grind at several grind levels and taste no difference in the flavour 😉
@@Coffee_Kev As far as I'm aware, I haven't been able to find anything. Interestingly I can find straight marmite, but not Twiglets unless I get a ton of them on Amazon, but they tend to be either in huge bulk or really expensive-although probably worth it 🤔
Hey I have a question. I’m having 16g in and 32g out in 28-30secs but still it’s very sour. Should I increase the water out? Or I should add more coffee to my dose. Thanks
Hi Kev, just ordered a Sage Impress machine following your review and would be interested to know what beans to start with. I’m not into really strong flavours and if there is a typical ‘middle of the road’ bean to try, what would you suggest?
Hi, Have a read of this blog post:coffeeblog.co.uk/best-coffee-beans-for-espresso/ It will give you an idea of what to use, I would go for an espresso blend to start with. Cheers Kev
Unfortunately for me, I find all nespresso type pods disgustingly sour. I never identified it as "sour" but always just said they are awful tasting. I suppose in order to get espresso at home that tastes like a real strong but not weak, or sour, or too smoky or stale tasting, I'll have to buy an expensive regular, non-pod espresso maker 🤷♀️ I wish I was one of those millions of people who's palates just LOVE nespresso pod type taste (its obviously cheaper than the regular espresso machines) .... but unfortunately, that's not me. My taste is such that I'll have to spend all the extra $$$ for a regular machine I guess 🙄😔
Actually, when you break down how much you have spent on pods over the years I bet you would be surprised and could have probably bought a coffee machine with the money spent on them!
Brand new Sage bambino and shots seem over extracted, got that overpowering malty dark chocolate taste. Using 19grams in a dual wall basket and grind is as fine as I can get it as I can’t afford a proper espresso grinder for now. I tried a shot in the regular baskets and nothing came out apart from a trickle and it tasted vile. Got to be honest, making coffee in my aeropress was a lot more pleasurable then this so feeling like I’ve wasted my cash
I have the Breville Barista Impress, and I am having a problem with the grinding precision. Sometimes it grinds too much and sometimes too little, no matter what I do, it doesn’t seem to save my adjustment for the new size. Another thing is that after I tamp and it shows a smiley face and green colour, I tried measuring, and it was about 20 g. I removed the extra 2 grams and tamped it again and it showed that I have a suboptimal amount on my basket. How do I fix it to 18 g and make it do remember my settings ? 🥲
